An Oregon man's dog made like Lassie and heroically ran four miles for help after its owner accidentally drove off the road and down a steep embankment, leaving him injured and stranded in a national forest.
Brandon Garrett was traveling with his four pet pooches north on Forest Service Road 39 in rural Baker County, Oregon, when he "failed to negotiate a curve" on the afternoon of June 2, according to the Baker County Sheriff's Office.
Garrett's truck plunged into a brush-covered ravine, coming to rest on its side in a creek, according to an official photo posted on Facebook along with a Tuesday news release.
Garrett, of Halfway, Oregon, was headed to a campsite where his family members were staying at the time of the crash.
After the accident, one of his dogs "traveled the nearly four miles to their camp, which alerted the rest of the party that something was wrong," the sheriff's office said.
Garrett's relatives found the crash site the next morning but couldn't reach it due to the treacherous terrain, so his brother called 911 around 9:30 a.m.
Sheriff Travis Ash responded to the scene and spotted the wrecked truck and one of Garrett's dogs.
Ash was trying to find a way down to the creek when he heard Garrett yell for help from the other side, about 100 yards above his truck, where he'd crawled the day before.
The sheriff clambered down, reached Garrett and administered first aid, after which volunteers from the Pine Valley Rural Fire Protection District and U.S. Forest Service employees used chainsaws to clear a path for rescuers.
Members of the Baker County Search and Rescue Ropes Team then set up an elaborate "highline" rope system that was used to hoist a rescue basket holding Garrett into the air and across the ravine.
He was then loaded into a helicopter the flown for treatment at a regional hospital.
The three other dogs were also rescued, the sheriff's office said, with an unconfirmed Facebook message saying that two suffered broken bones and were being treated by a veterinarian.
